By IANS, [RxPG] Bangalore, March 16 - India's latest communication satellite Insat-4B was placed in the near-geosynchronous orbit Friday in the third and final orbit-raising operation conducted from the Master Control Facility - at Hassan in Karnataka.

The Indian Space Research Organisation - in a statement said the liquid apogee motor - on board the satellite was fired for three minutes and 50 seconds during the manoeuvre to keep the spacecraft in the orbital period of 23 hours and 52 minutes.

'After placing the satellite in the near-geosynchronous orbit, its two solar panels and two antennas were deployed. The solar arrays generate 5,860kw of power. The two antennas are used for various transmit and receive functions,' the statement said.

The satellite will be put into its three-axis stabilised mode Saturday.

It is currently located at 74.88 degree east longitude and is drifting towards its final orbital position of 93.5 degrees east. The satellite drift will be arrested at 80.5 degree east longitude to carry out in-orbit testing of the payloads after which it will be moved to 93.5 degree east longitude where it will be co-located with Insat-3A.